Charlie's Going to Duke!

This post is WAY behind, and I know I've been lazy with the posts... but whatever. I wasn't too busy, just lazy. OK. So now that the truth is out there...

Charlie is going to Duke Divinity!!

We were a little worried around the application process because we were a little behind the game time-wise with the application. But all the favors were called in and we were just a-waiting.

P.S. We HATE waiting (so much that we don't even wait to un wrap presents... once they are wrapped... regardless of the day... and we are together, we want to go ahead and opening them) = needless to say...We were getting impatient.

So we head to the beach house for a music festival weekend and BOOM, Charlie gets a voice mail from the Head of Admissions, saying that he will get the letter soon, but there is a spot waiting for him at Duke Div!

Here are just some pictures of him on the phone telling his friends and family about the big news.



The rest of the weekend was fun and relaxing, while trying to compredhen what the next three years will be like for our family. The fun begins August 24th with orientation and classes starting on the 26th? I think that's right.

Lumber Bridge, NC

Latin Teacher's mother's family is from Scotland County, NC. More specifically Lumber Bridge, NC. We went down on Sunday afternoon for a family reunion lunch, it was the same weekend as a Dayton 500, so we were watching a little of that too!


Out back of this great house, Uncle Tommy Toler is a bee keeper, and we took some risks to get some pictures of the houses.



There were also some other very pretty sights on our around the house that allowed be to feel like a photographer. It was really nice to use my great camera in good natural light.

It was a great time meeting more of Latin Teacher's extended family!

Pioneer Woman would be proud!

Marina and I took it upon ourselves (and little Sofia) that we would make Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls in her cook book.

It called for lots and lots of butter, and sugar, and stuff that sticks to your finger and hips. I made the mistake of not taking pictures until the end of the whole adventure (and that's really what it was). But you do get to see the finished product.


Here is the dough rising in the nice warm bowel, it worked much much better than the Cinnamon Bread that I tried a while ago... Marina and Sofia have a way with yeast.


After kneading and playing we rolled the dough out and put the sugar and butter and cinnamon (read: we used 1/2 the butter and it was still good... I can't imagine what it would be like with all the butter).


We then rolled them and put them into pans, since the recipe made a TON of rolls we froze most of them in the Offner's freezer, but made two pans for immediate consumption.


They were/are AMAZING! I was so impressed in us! I could not have done it without the Offner ladies. We made a glaze with maple syrup and lots of confectioner sugar. Wonderful. I could eat the whole bowl of it.

We didn't get a picture of the rolls with the glaze, we were too busy eating them, sorry folks.

On a side note, Latin Teacher and Spanish Teacher were doing the patch work that was discussed in the Bathroom Renovations post along with installing a ceiling fan in Sofia's room. But that wasn't the real work done today.

Big Brad's 90th Birthday!

My mother's father, Brad, Granddaddy, or Big Bad Brad as Latin Teacher has dubbed him hit a new milestone recently. He made it to 90 years old! Isn't he good looking!!

We had a little get together at his home in High Point, where he lives in the same house my mom and her family has lived in for many many years. We hadn't been able to all meet up since before Christmas, so we did everything all at once. It was slightly confusing for the birthday boy... but all he really wanted was some presents to open, who would blame him... he's 90, he can do whatever he wants in my book.

Daniel (Latin Teacher's Brother-in-Law) goes to school at Appalachian State and gave him a large golf umbrella for his Birthday, which he asked "Am I supposed to support this team?"... he is a UNC Alum, sounds like something they would say :)


Latin Teacher and I brought him lots of candy and socks... I was looking to appeal to all his needs... warm toes and a sugar high.

We also had some surprisingly yummy chocolate on chocolate (Birthday Boy's Fave) after a great meal at a local restaurant, Austin's (also a Birthday Boy Fave).


All and All everyone had a great time, and as we all told what we wanted to accomplish in the next year. Big Brad said " To make it to 91!" What a great plan!

Bathroom Renovation

Hello All,

I know, I know... It's been a long while since I've blogged... something like 3 Months of not blogging, but I'M BACK!

I'm going to start this story with a perceived leak in the master bathroom's shower. We stopped using it for a short while and began using the guest bathroom. I was walking out of the shower and saw a spot where the ugly ugly wallpaper was starting to peel. This is what the beautiful wallpaper looked like (it was also textured and painted over when we bought the place).


I love love love peeling things, paint... paper... and well if someone has a sun burn... I'll leave it at that. So, I started peeling the wallpaper off the wall... only to find, more wallpaper. There was a lovely blue, pink, and while flowery pattern on the layer underneath.

After I started working I found that the best way to do this was to use a razor blade and peel the layers off as best I could. After the first layer, it looked something like this:


There is another layer of the pink/blue stuff underneath all this. We also removed the ugly brassy fixtures, we'll talk more about this later.

I removed both layers and all was left was the backing to the second layer, using that blue nasty gel stuff, I was able to remove the backing and glue from the wall. It was all quite magical.

All the while, we have removed the large plane mirror and the fixtures. There were large, aggravating, and damaging wall anchors... I guess the previous people though they were going to hang weights on these fixtures. They were old, metal and left huge holes in our walls. They looked something like this:


Latin teacher and Spanish teacher worked to patch the walls (the putty was pink, although it dried while) so he's going to sand it and do it all again before I can prime and paint. I'm thinking of using This Color... it is a small room, but I'm planning on having a mirror ($10 from Goodwill) with a white frame and the cabinets are white as well. So we'll see.


It's obviously really really dark, so obviously I'm scared to paint it that, but we'll see.

There is still more to do, always is, and so I'll work on posting an update as soon as we, well do more work :)

December 2010

Well, I think we all know it's been a unique December here in North Carolina. It has also been a new and great December for the Latin Teacher house. It started with some time at my In-Laws . They have a having a crab pot Christmas Tree (2 actually) in place of a real or artificial looking Christmas Tree. It looks really nice and the clean up is a cinch!!


We've had some big (well kinda) snows in December! Here are some pictures of Latin Teacher, Buckley Bear and me in the snow or the beginnings of the snow.

This was the first one toward the beginning of December.

Oh! There is by bearded husband! We are in Durham at Tobacco Road when the snow began! I was SO excited!
I'm Just as excited!
I also thought it was a great idea to go out for a run too, don't worry mom, I put another jacket on top of that once I was about to go.

We went to get our own Christmas Tree (we got the real thing, although it surprisingly doesn't spell that much... too bad)


For a late Birthday event, we went over to the In-Laws (it might have been where I got that first shot of the crab pot tree, but go with it...) for brunch, it was all very very yummy!

I think Latin Teacher had shaved his beard RIGHT before this...

Ohh these were so good!
We also went to Wine and Design with some work friends and made lots of versions of the Raleigh Skyline, here is my version:

One night, after Latin Teacher's parent's friend's party (follow all that?) we went over to Matt and Marina's for games and cheese, I didn't get anything of the games, but the cheese was too good looking to avoid.


This was Latin Teacher and My first Christmas together our Merry, Married Christmas... we know, cheesy... But at least it snowed :)

This is a Christmas Day picture that Latin Teacher's grandfather took, I think it was pretty good!

Oh look! It's my husband!

and then the SNOW!!

It was beautiful... Buckley didn't know what to do (he just ate a lot of ice/snow and went crazy)...

and we went to visit my family that has a zoo on their property, including deer outback.


It was a great December!! and we're going to The Avett Brothers in Asheville for New Years Eve!!

Get excited for the pictures!

The Anatomy of a Puppy

Our sweet puppy is experiencing his first Christmas, unfortunately this post has nothing to do with that.

This is all about the precious features of our loving, gentle and playful pup.

Lets start with paws
These rough little feet are used mostly for stabilizing his nylabone and then for walking. He also give his "sign of good faith" and some seriously cute nose scratching (you'll see this later).

His nose, some people just call it "white spots" but here at the Latin Teacher house, we call it "Powered Sugar". You'll see we have syrupy sweet names for everything, and that's the way we like it, so there! This was something that we didn't really pay attention to when we first rescued Buck, but it is something we have grown to love and enjoy.

Name tags. These can be heard a mile away. They have a distinctive sound that I can recognize really well. It has both Latin Teacher and my phone numbers on a shiny red bone, and when it hits the rabies vaccine tag that the Dr. Wilson said we had to put on, it makes a magnificent sound. Some people will put a sliencing rubber thing on their dogs' tags. If we did that, we would never know where he was, especially at night.


A nose. This is one of the most powerful and influential piece of our precious pup. He can smell a stick of butter one room over, will sniff every thing possible while on the greenway/sidewalk/parking lot/ any surface really. He also can pinpoint everything and anything you are eating. It's kinda pink, mostly black, and almost always wet and cold. We love it, I don't mind admitting I've kissed it a few times...

So this isn't the best picture, and you might not recognize the area, but this is the diamond on the top of precious pup's head. We think it somehow relates for aforementioned "powered sugar" but we don't really care, we love it all the same.

Now for the real money makers, the ears. These ears are fantastic. To say that they were the only reason we love this dog so much would be a complete lie. But they don't hurt either. They are super soft, velvety and attract an insane amount of dirt and gunk. But it is all worth it when you run your hands overs these jewels. They one of the defining features of his houndessness, other than his stubbornness, but that does photograph well.

Then there is this. If you have ever met our sweet thing, you would know him and his tail are of two different minds. This tail can knock anything down especially off coffee tables and makes quite a sound when hitting walls, cabinets, doors, floors, people, etc. Having a puppy with a tail like this allows us to apologize to the parents of small children (tail whacking in their tiny faces), other dog owners, or just random people in general. It's a wonderful conversation starter and we have been know to apologize for spilled drinks (or Buckley drinking out of people's beer/wine/soda/ milk/coffee... good thing he isn't picky right?)

When you put these qualities together, this is what you get:

Cuteness! The wonderful pleasure of looking a squirming, grunting, upside down tan puppy. We sometimes find him at at the foot of out full sized bed in this exact pose... I think he's taking a little more room than absolutely needed.